Ras Al Khaimah Sea and beach clean up
Held in October 2014, the signature event in Ras Al Khaimah saw more than 100 volunteers from the hotel group’s properties, as well as 40 residents from the emirate, participate in the event to clean beaches, including 40 divers, who cleaned the ocean floor off the coast of the emirate.
Equipped with diving equipment, rubbish bags and gloves, the divers collected more than 100kg of litter from 2km of the seabed during the two-hour underwater clean-up. On land, the volunteers cleared a 1km stretch of Marjan Island Beach, contributing 325kg to the impressive haul of rubbish.
Emille Argitas, a Hilton Worldwide team member who organised the event, says: “As an avid scuba diver, I have seen both worlds. Whenever we do clean ups, we only look at the surface, and hardly anyone thinks of the underwater world. Through our Global Week of Service signature event, we seek to make a positive impact on the future of tourism in RAK. We are seeing an increase in the number of diving tourists, and Marjan Island has a lot to offer.”
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In association with PADI Project Aware, team members mapped out an area to be covered. RAK Tourism was also involved early on to promote the dive sites among tourists and residents in the emirate.
Once permits were secured from the emirate’s environmental department, the event was promoted to local Ras Al Khaimah and UAE volunteers, as well as hotel guests at Hilton Worldwide properties in the emirate through in-room notices.
In the run up to the event, the team prepared all the diving equipment and held pre-dive briefings to ensure safety of all the participants. Once the dive and beach clean ups were concluded, the debris was weighed, recorded, and submitted to PADI for research and to support long-term cleaning efforts.
Global week of service around the world
Throughout Global Week of Service, Hilton properties around the world worked with an international network of community-based organisations in addition to more than 2800 local organisations selected by hotels and offices.
• More than 370 volunteers from 14 Hilton Worldwide properties across the UAE, Qatar and Oman collaborated with environmental agencies, tour operators and residents to organise underwater, beach, desert, park and mountain clean-ups across the Arabian Peninsula. Together, the teams collected more than two tons of debris.
• In Egypt, more than 50 volunteers from Hilton’s Cairo properties and corporate office contributed 700 volunteering hours to launch the Soap for Hope initiative with Ana El Masri, a social enterprise that supports, educates and empowers children at risk of trafficking.
• In Mexico, 50 DoubleTree by Hilton volunteers spent 350 hours repairing rooftops, installing a playground and conducting workshops for children and their caretakers at SOS Children’s Villages in Mexico City.
• Volunteers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia educated young people and the public on the importance of water conservation and stewardship in partnership with Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn. Bhd, the company responsible for local water supply and distribution.
• In San Francisco, more than 200 volunteers celebrated Hilton San Francisco’s 50th anniversary by assembling more than 24,800 meals.
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